Mills, awarded an MBE after a career that included 43 England caps, was manager of Stoke in the 1980s when teenage apprentices at the club were allegedly subjected to a punishment ritual also known as "the Finger," whereby a goalkeeper's glove was smeared with heat cream and used in a sexual assault.
Stoke are now facing a civil case for damages after a former trainee, George Blackstock, started action against the club for a breach of duty, claiming he was left with post-traumatic stress because the first-team goalkeeper, Peter Fox, perpetrated the act upon him in the first-team dressing room at the now-demolished Victoria Ground.
Other cases are "in the wings", the court was told, as more alleged victims from Stoke initiate their own claims, alleging separate incidents caused them post-traumatic stress and depression. Blackstock's case is that, in another incident, a group of first-team players held him down and placed a hot teapot against his bare backside.